The Struggle for Freedom
by victoria92179
Summary: The sequel to my story "Freedom". Traces the Journey of Cloud and a very alive Zack through the events of Final Fantasy VII. Cloti and Zerith with hints of Clerith.


**A/N: **Hello, welcome to the sequel of Freedom! This story starts from the part where the plate falls, sorry to all of you people who where hoping to see the wall-market scene. Since Zack is alive, there will be a few changes to the story. I'd like to thank my beta, **Chibipinkbunny** for correcting this chapter and most of the chapters in my completed story.

**Chapter 1: Trouble **

**Zack PoV**

Things were looking up. Lord Godo let us stay as long as we kept mostly to our little shed, so we stayed for a few months. During the first few weeks, I couldn't even walk because I was so weak. Cloud was better though. After a bit of sleep he was up and walking within a couple of days.

After I recovered, Cloud and I set about finding jobs. The local shop needed someone to run errands for him and was offering gil in exchange, so we took him up on the offer. Some of those jobs were really tough, like killing monsters attacking the nearby towns; it was almost like we were mercenaries. Often our deliveries branched out to the nearby villages and towns. Tifa got a job helping out the local weapon shop owner.

Things were going well until the day I had just gotten back from a mission, and we saw a ShinRa helicopter land in Wutai. A crowd had gathered around the helicopter. Most of them were confused and some of them were angry. The person closest to the helicopter was Lord Godo. I worked my way through the crowd. When I reached Godo I was finally able to see who the pilot was. Surprisingly enough, Cissnei was the pilot. She was much too preoccupied explaining the harmless nature of her visit to notice me.

"Cissnei," I cautiously asked, "what are you doing here?"

She stopped speaking to Lord God and turned towards me. "I'm here to help you out."

"But you're a Turk!" I exclaimed.

She wagged a finger at me playfully. "I'm an ex-Turk now," she said, "I quit."

"But the penalty for leaving the Turks is usually death, right?"

She nodded, and looked at me with glassy eyes. "I managed to escape in one of ShinRa's helicopters, thanks to Tseng"

"Tseng's a-alive?" I stammered.

"Yes, and he managed to stay the leader of the Turks," Cissnei confirmed, "but ShinRa's keeping a close eye on him, so he won't be much help. Why'd you ask?"

"I need something from him," I explained looking down at the ground.

"Oh!" She exclaimed as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "You mean this?"

I hastily took the paper from her and unfolded it, my hands shaking. Scrawled on the top were the words 'Dear Zack' and on the bottom were the words 'Love, Aerith'. It was Aerith's first letter. "Yes," I replied, barely able to speak, "but how did you get this?"

"Tseng gave it to me when he helped me escape."

I nodded and stuck the folded letter in my pocket. "So," I said, "I guess we're both fugitives"

"Yea, I guess so," She said, her voice cheerful, like it was a good thing. Then Lord Godo interrupted. He said a few words to Cissnei and then left.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"He said I could stay here for a few days as long as I promise not to cause any trouble."

I gestured toward my temporary home and started walking in that direction with Cissnei close behind. "You can stay with us," I said, "as long as Aerith doesn't mind."

"You mean the Cetra girl's here too?"

"Yep," I said with a slight nod.

"What about the other sample," She said, "the one that was poisoned"

"He's here too and I'd appreciate it if you didn't call him a 'sample'…" My voice came out harsher than intended.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she quickly apologized. "Well, what's his name then?"

I paused, slowing my pace a little and then eventually stopping. Cissnei looked back, a confused expression on her face. "H- His name is Cloud," I said, being careful to choose my words. Even now I couldn't completely trust her. It was too risky to reveal Cloud's last name I was still on the run from ShinRa and she was still a Turk… no matter what she said. If she wasn't a Turk, she would be dead. I started walking again, but at a slower pace than I did before.

"Cloud… like the stuff in the sky?" I nodded and she smiled. "Well that's an interesting name." I nodded once again and then looked away from her, the little shack just coming into view. I quickened my pace, not wanting to talk anymore, and I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally got to the front entrance of the shack. There was a note posted on the door.

_Dear Zack,_

_Tifa and I went Shopping, we'll be back around noontime_

_Love,_

_Aerith_

_They left Cloud all alone! He could have had a Jenova attack!_ I sighed pushing the door open slowly, expecting to find a feverish Cloud on the other side. Instead I found him sitting on the couch reading a small book. He looked up when I appeared, immediately standing up.

"Oh, hello Zack, welcome back." He looked behind me at Cissnei. "Who is this?"

"Oh," Zack stepped aside and gestured at Cissnei. "This is-"

"I'm Cissnei," she interrupted. "I'm a friend of Zack's." She smiled a bit as she said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Cloud."

"How do you know my name?" He took a few steps back, bumping into the couch.

"Zack told me on the way here," she said calmly.

Cloud's eyes wandered up to meet my blue eyes. "You… told her?" He said discreetly. "She could be an enemy in disguise, Zack!"

I shook my head and was going to respond but Cloud caught sight of the ID badge still attached to her Turk suit, and he reached for his blade that was leaning against the couch and held it in front of him. "She's a Turk, which means she's no friend of mine."

"W-wait! I can explain," I said, stepping in front of Cissnei, but Cloud didn't listen.

"Gods, Zack, why did you have to let a Turk in here!" he yelled. "We could be in serious trouble."

"She's an Ex-Turk, Cloud!" I yelled back at him, causing him to flinch.

"She couldn't have quit, or else she would be dead!" He gazed up at me, his eyes narrowed in anger "besides, how do you know she really quit?" He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, "she could be leaking information about out whereabouts to the Turks, Zack" The sword was only a couple of feet away from me, but Cloud's angry eyes had suddenly turned sad "Please Zack… If you don't move, I may have to hurt you too"

I pushed the blade out of the way, looking down at the floor. "S-she's my friend, Cloud, and… I trust her."

He let go of the blade, letting it clatter to the floor as he sank back down on the couch. His mako blue eyes found mine as he stared into them. "Well Zack, if you trust her… then I do too." He sighed, "I'm not sure how the girls are going to take this though…" I nodded, breaking eye contact with Cloud. Then the door burst open suddenly. Cissnei suddenly remembered to take off her Turk ID, and she hastily stuffed it in her pocket. Tifa was the one that came through the door first.

"W…we have… a problem," she said between breaths. Aerith and Yuffie trailed in slowly behind her.

"What is it Tifa?" I asked in a worried voice. "What's wrong?"

"It's Barret, he's in trouble." Everybody in the room, save Aerith, had identical looks of confusion on their faces.

"Who's Barret?" Cloud asked.

"A friend of mine," she shook her head, "but never mind him, if we don't do something the entire sector seven slums will be wiped out!"

**A/N: **Sorry this chapter is so short, but just like with Freedom, the chapters will get longer. I just thought that I would get this chapter up so that I don't keep people waiting for too long. Wow, this has been sitting in my computer half finished for a long time; I'm glad I finally got off of my lazy butt and finished it! ^.^ again I would like to thank **Chibipinkbunny **for being my wonderful beta reader; I wouldn't have gotten this far without you Chibi! ^_^

Oh and I've also been doing a lot of RPing to help my writing skills, so you should see some improvement.

Cloud, Zack, and everybody else in this Fanfic belongs to Square Enix


End file.
